Cremains to be seen

Yesterday I had some time on my hands before the funeral. I had looked through the multiple pictures of the loved one whom I never had met but heard of. I met various family members and played with my friend's 11 month old great-grandson (he was smaller than Maya but very cute), I cleaned my purse, I took a walk in the nearby neighbor making phone calls until the drizzle drove me inside. Still more time left (why did I come so early?): what to do? I read through a book of services offered by the funeral home on how to honor ones loved one.

• Send their cremains into space through some partnership they have with a rocket company. Their ashes will orbit the earth indefinitely (well Suzie Scientist begs to differ with that). No price offered for that service.
• Convert their cremains into part of an artificial reef.
• Convert their cremains into a diamond-like jewel to be worn as a ring or necklace.
• Dump (not the word they used) their cremains into the ocean. My father had requested that his ashes be spread on Moonlight Beach in CA. This is illegal but my brother arranged for a boat to go out somewhere in the Pacific Ocean outside of San Diego. They gave a certificate with the exact co-rodinates.
• Make an imprint of their fingertip to be worn as a gold medallion.
• At the service, release monarch butterflies at $150/dozen.
• At the service, release doves at $150/piece.

I swear I am not making any of the above up. Death be not proud indeed! As for me, I want none of the above nor do I want any Weird Al Yankovic songs be played full blast at the service (good sound system there though). As a cancer patient without fantastic odds of survival (I do hope they are improving with every month that goes by seemily cancer-free) I guess I should consider these things. I do have a plot in the nicest cemetary in Ann Arbor. Beyond that, I don't know what I want (just what I don't want).

By the time I got home, it was too muggy to run plus difficult after an Indian lunch. Maya was with us for a while. She is becoming much more expressive. Still not as smily as I remember my babies being. I am lucky to elicit one smile a visit.